| Author: | | New Member Registered: January, 2008 Location: Marion, IA Posts: 15
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 10, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $700.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Angle of View, Center/mid frame sharpness, Build Quality | | Cons: | No filters, barrel distortion (8-12mm), extreme corners are soft, bugs with Pentax | |
The angle of view is second to no rectilinear lens on APS-C. The center and partway resolution figures are excellent, only the extreme left and right edges and corners are soft. They maintain resolution okay, but lose contrast making them a little muddy looking.
The build quality is excellent, having nicely weight manual focus with a reduction system so the focus mechanism turns about half the speed as the ring. It also has smooth and quiet HSM, which behaves much like Pentax SDM in that it is smooth and quiet but not faster than screw drive. It is about the same speed or slightly slower end to end as my DA 10-17mm or 16-45mm. I do prefer the HSM to the screw drive as it is more refined feeling.
There are two glitches on Pentax bodies at the moment, and those are focal lengths less than 10mm do not register in the EXIF (they show as --), and focus in live view is very slow (roughly 5 seconds to focus in good light, about twice as long as a Pentax lens I have). The issue with the glitch of less than 10mm not showing is this means Lightroom 3 won't apply lens corrections correctly to the lens at those focal lengths.
Distortion is higher than some other reviewers indicate, as it gets worse towards infinity. My chart allows me to measure distortion at roughly 1:50 magnification, which is fairly close to infinity focus for performance, and I measure about 4.5% barrel at 8mm. Distortion between 14-16mm is minor.
The biggest drawback is probably the lack of filters. No filters can be used. Most filters can be worked around by bracketing shots and using HDR, but this doesn't work for long exposures. If you have a variable ND or something you are out of luck.
The lens does flare easily, but the flare spots are mostly minor. These tend to occur when the sun is just out of the frame. Every now and then you will see a larger green orb similar to what the DA 21mm will produce when it flares when the sun is in the frame.
I sound harsh on this lens, but I absolutely love it, and it performs much like other lenses in this class. My preference is this over the other ultra-wides, and I would buy it again in a heartbeat.
Eric
| | | | | | | Junior Member Registered: February, 2009 Posts: 38
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: September 2, 2010 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | well built, low CA | | Cons: | cannot use filters, EXIF info "bug" | |
I was getting myself a 10-20mm Sigma and had difficulties on choosing, which one to get (new or old version), but when I found out about this new lens I canceled order on 10-20 and immediately decided to get this one. I had no regrets since.
Well... of course distortion is bigger at widest setting than with 10-20mm, but I am almost sure, that this one has smaller distortion on 10mm than either one of 10-20mm lenses on 10mm setting - then there is also 2mm addition on wider side if needed.
Then there's bigger surprise - I had used Pentax 12-24mm once and one of biggest drawbacks was the huge amount of CA. This one knocks most of competitors off the table on this... and I even would not bother with more pixel-peeping - lenstip.com has one impressive review on this.
Then we add HSM autofocus on the top of the cake and here you have it - I can even live with the inability to use filters with it and do not care about the fact that focal lenghts under 10 mm will show up as 0 in EXIF info.
| | | | | Inactive Account Registered: April, 2009 Location: New York Posts: 2
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 4, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $699.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Super Wide Zoom | | Cons: | None | |
Best Ultra-Wide Zoom Lens. If you like wide angels, absolutely Must Have Item.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: November, 2009 Location: Strand Posts: 1,366 | | Review Date: February 5, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $860.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Well build, currently only 8mm available for APS-C | | Cons: | Cannot use filters | |
My first copy fail to auto focus, dead motor. I have now the 2nd copy. I tested with the 1st copy in manual focus. IQ is very good, same as this one. I just uploaded some pics at 8mm, see for yourself.
Cons: Except for the filter issue, none so far, as long as I keep the subject within limitation of UWA.
All in all, I m very content with this lens. Highly recommend.
| | | | | | | Senior Member Registered: July, 2010 Location: HI Posts: 168
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 25, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $630.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Well- Built, tack sharp @ center, reli nice color, shocking results | | Cons: | Really Strange barrel distortion when object is close, limitation on focusing | |
16mm
8mm
First thing first, if you really think a lens (or you) cannot live without a filter mounted on a lens, this is not a lens for you. Go for Sigma 10-20s , the DA 12-24 or Tamron 10-24......etc and you name it. 
I cannot say this is there is a best uwa lens on the market now and it should not be. When it comes to this catagory, its all depends on what you asked for, there is no "best" ultra wide lens for "everyone". But i can say if this lens does not shock you, no other lens would. This is the one and the only lens offer 8mm focal length non Fisheye available now, and you would love the extra 2mm you can cover in your picture. If i have to put it in words to describe how wide is 8mm- its far beyond than what your eyes can see - Here is what happeend: I was sitting outside a coffee shop under a balcony. I can't see the top two floors of a 9- stroy building across from the street with my bare eyes, which the view is blocked by the balcony on top of me. But when i look thru the viewfinder with this lens mounted, i see the whole building with some sky- How Amazing
Pro: I got this from Adorama for $630 (GM price) and i think it worths the money. For the most part, it suprised me on the sharpness at any focal length even wide open ! (picture to follow) The picture also has very nice contrast and strong detail. This lens is built like a tank and comes with a useful soft case. Very friendly working distance, it even can focus as close as 25cm. I did not change lens on my camera for my last trip at all !!
Con: It's a known fact that this lens does not take any filter, if you already accepted the "physical property" of this lens then this is not a "con" at all. Right? read my first paragraph.
This lens does have a few weaknesses after some hands-on experience.
1. It is not a protrait lens and your eyes will not used it when you trying to take a protrait from this lens (when object is 3-4 ft away from u). The distortion is very pronounce especially when your object is human being. It is just a property of every wide angle lens. But when u hv the lens on ur hands, you just cant stop taking picture of people. It is fun if you like the result.
2. Auto Focusing is hit or miss for this lens in some occasion. Due to the nature of the wide-wide angle of view, your AF sensor will have a hard time to pick up small details in focus. I have tried to MF the lense using LV and zoom in as much as i can, and its still hard. Focusing is generally a non-issue for this kind of lens tho, for this lens you only need to(or only able to) focus the 1st 1- 3 Ft and after that is all infinity. DOF is very deep, this only happens when you are using larger aperture.
Conclusion:
You have to know what you need first before looking into this lens. If filter does matter to you then you should pick the other better options. It is a "either-or "question than the "good or bad" scenario when you comparing this lens with others that has the filter ability. The bottomline for this lens is really the ability to do 8mm with excellent picture IQ, i choose this lens because of this and i am very happy with the results. | | | | | Junior Member Registered: March, 2011 Location: London Posts: 35
4 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 11, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $650.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | widest rectilinear lens available, good sharpness wide open, very good distortion control, very good build, fast accurate silent focus | | Cons: | somewhat prone to flare/CA at 8mm, K-5 does not recognise 8mm, exposed front element, lens cap is a pain | |
There is 1 IQ con to this lens that makes it 9 instead of 10 because at 8mm with aperture below f8.0, it is somewhat prone to flare and chromatic aberration. Take note that I'm thinking 10 as in perfect so although the degree of flare and CA is minute, it still can be seen in the right conditions. So it's not perfect.
Other than that, IQ is close to perfect. Sharpness is good even wide open. Distortion even at 8mm is only noticeable if you actually take a straight ruler to measure. Build quality is also very good. AF is fast, accurate and silent (though I don't expect anything less from HSM wide angle)
There are only 3 minor annoyances.- The front element is exposed (i.e. can't use protective filter). I know it's unavoidable (and some people will argue against protective filters anyway) but it definitely makes me a little bit more concious about things knocking on the glass.
- Pentax K-5 does not recognise focal length below 10mm. If you check focal length, it's just blank. When you are at 10mm, the focal length marvellously reappears. It's annoying because Adobe Lightroom needs the focal length information to perform automatic lens correction.
- The included lens cap is a pain. There is a adapter tube which has 72mm thread. You need to put on the tube and then put on the removable 72mm lens cap. I wouldn't be complaining about it if the tube does not cause dark corners.
So why not just make the tube itself a lens cap instead? You can buy 72mm metal screw-in lens cap from ebay and it will convert the adapter tube into an (even better) lens cap.
I love architectural/landscape HDR and this lens is golden for that purpose!
 | | | | | Junior Member Registered: June, 2009 Location: Trondheim, Norway Posts: 35 | | Review Date: May 2, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $1,204.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Tack sharp, solid construction. | | Cons: | No filters, K5 don't recognise it at it's widest, a little slow | |
A realy good UW lens, perfect for landscapes and architecture. I like hdr photography, so i think this lens will be used for that purpose. Highly recommended and fun to use. | | | | | Inactive Account Registered: May, 2009 Location: Germany Posts: 69 | | Review Date: May 6, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $740.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Well build, currently the only 8mm Lens available for APS-C | | Cons: | Cannot use filters | |
Best Ultra-Wide Zoom Lens for APS-C.
If you like wide angels, absolutely "Must Have Item".
Perfect for Landscapes, Architecture, Interior Photography
and Real Estate Photography.
| | | | | New Member Registered: June, 2011 Posts: 10
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 11, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $850.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Huge angle | | Cons: | Quite expensive, big and heavy, no EXIF | |
What a wide angle! You'd never expect you can put so much in a single photo. No more stitched panoramas, this lens captures everything in a single shot. When you can't step back (because you're in a building, or in the mountains), this huge angle is really useful.
It is fairly well built. The zoom is much rougher in the 8-10 range than between 10 and 16mm, but it looks solid and heavy, maybe a bit too heavy in fact. It is also surprisingly big.
Next surprise the maximal extension of the lens is at 8 mm, not at 16mm. But the "tulip" doesn't move a bit (you can't even remove it), it's just the frontal lens coming in or out.
The image quality looks fine, I haven't seen any big issue. As expected at 8mm, everything in the corners looks distorted if you are close up, because the focal length is so small… right lines are also visibly curved. All those effects disappears as soon as you zoom in a bit (say 10-12mm).
The HSM AF is amazingly fast and silent. Anyway with such a focal lenght, everything is basically sharp even at fairly wide apertures. You can do MF, but as it is a sigma lens you have to use the AF/MF switch on the lens, not on the camera body. The MF ring is a bit hard.
Definitely a good lens.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: July, 2008 Location: Var, South of France Posts: 1,074
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: September 1, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $900.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Nice finish, unequaled FoV in APS-C, not a fisheye, near silent. | | Cons: | Big! | |
This lens is really great!
For architectural shots, it's a sheer pleasure to use. The 100+° horizontal field of view is simply amazing for interiors, meaning that from a corner you can shot a whole room from wall to wall!
Landscapes becomes real challenges in avoiding unwanted elements in the composition, and I often ended up with my feet somewhere in the pic! (Note for users : avoid placing a face near the borders!)
Also, something to note for landscapes: it feels like there is a CPL included! Skies are a deep blue, whereas similar exposures with the kit lens often resulted in washed-out skies... Quite strange...
Image quality is great, aberrations are minimal and distortions are quite negligible.
So, this lens is exceptional, but it is really a specialist lens...
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: August, 2009 Location: Lexington, KY Posts: 30
8 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 18, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $675.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | 8mm, sharp, really no competition | | Cons: | Big, can flare, soft corners until stopped down | |
Overall, unlike the 10-20mm, one needs to learn how to use this lens to get the most from it. If you just set it to 8mm and shoot like you would with any other lens, you will get shots that look like the subject was too far away. You need to actively seek-out unusual perspectives, and the rear LCD comes in handy for letting you see what the camera sees when your face cannot get there. This lens does give a much more ordinary perspective around 16mm, but I think the 10-20mm will give most casual photographers a higher keeper rate. That said, the center sharpness of the 8-16mm would allow significant cropping to save many too-distant shots.
Unlike the 10-20mm, which needs to be stopped down a little, this lens is very sharp in the center wide open. Stopping down helps edges and hurts the center. The corners never quite catch up to the center at 8mm, but everything is more than acceptably sharp by around f/8. I've found myself often using this lens at f/14-f/22 to get even sharpness on everything across the frame at all distances -- but your sensor and the lens front (yes, things on the lens front are nearly in focus!) need to be absolutely spotless to get away with that and not have to go removing little dust shadows in post processing... a little unsharp masking is also useful to restore the sharpness that diffraction took away. Depth of field (DoF) seems less as you move away from the center at 8mm... not an effect that I saw on any other lens.
Colors seem very intense, but ultrawides do that.
Build is usual Sigma, lightweight yet solid. I do not care that it cannot take a filter, but the curvature and the fixed hood do make it harder to get a lenspen to the edges. The cap assembly needs to be aligned just right to put it back on the lens, which is a little annoying. The built-in hood does keep you from accidentally pushing the lens into objects you are photographing. 
Distortion is about 3% at 8mm, which is good for everything but architecture and really impressive for such a wide lens. Distortion is negligible between 12-16mm.
It is hard to get the lens to flare, but when it does you can get brightly colored dots. They are easy to edit out, but disturbing when present. I've also gotten a bit of a ring around the sun in a few photos, but flare is really well controlled.
Despite the short focal length, focus does indeed matter. I have the Sony version and let's just say there are problems with autofocus. Using manual focus, it is clear that the focus scale shifts significantly as the lens heats-up or cools in ambient temperatures from 20F to 110F, and that's probably why the autofocus has some issues. I don't know if the Pentax mount version has the same problem, but I expect it does.
One last comment: I went on a 6,500-mile driving tour of the USA west several months ago, and this lens was used for more than 1/3 of the photos I took... easily my favorite lens for the trip. It is hard to use well -- you really need to be very careful about getting close, searching-out good angles, and watching what sneaks into the edges of the frame, but it allows me to make photos that none of my 100+ other lenses can. With very careful composition, you really can capture the feel of expansive western landscapes that less-wide lenses cannot. I had a fisheye along with me too, but the ability to zoom a little on this Sigma, combined with the lack of guessing about how de-fishing will leave things, makes for much more accurate composition and thus consistently superior photos. This is why 10 overall.
| | | | | New Member Registered: December, 2011 Location: Padova Posts: 8
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 18, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $600.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | incredible angle of view, razor sharp, well built | | Cons: | slow (but isn't a problem for this kind of lens) | |
This is a unique lens design on the market, there aren't any other similar lens that provide a similar angle of view (except the Sigma 12-24mm f4.5-5.6 and Voigtlaender 12 mm f5,6 UltraWide Heliar that however are for FF).
It shows a great sharpness all around the frame, whit rich colors and beautiful contrast.
The maximum sharpness is achieved at largest apertures, that it's great.
The only problem for me is the fixed lens hood.
====> VERY INTERESTING: this lens may cover the entire full frame by removing the hood!!! these are not assumptions because if I put something between hood and lens, I can clearly see it.
I heard that someone removed the hood and the lens works great with old film camera, providing an incredible wide angle!!
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: June, 2011 Location: Near Sydney, NSW Posts: 331 | | Review Date: July 4, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $775.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Perfect wide angle range, actually quite small, beautiful build, excellent IQ | | Cons: | Gone in Pentax mount (which puts a price premium on it) | |
So, to people who are saying this lens is big... Umm, no. Considering it's 8-16 it's pretty tiny actually. Check out the 10-20 f3.5 (which I also give 10, it's excellent) - but this is much slimmer, about the size you'd expect from say a 17-50 f2.8. The only time this lens is big is when compared with garbage kit lenses, or primes. It's actually my smallest zoom lens.
But anyhoo, on with the review: it's fantastic, especially with the right complimentary lenses. I used to have the 10-20, which is great, but I didn't like the overlap with my DA 16-50. Finally I ditched the 10-20 for this and I couldn't be happier. Mostly for landscapes, I use the 16-50 but when I want to go wider, it's good to know that this only goes wider than 16.
Vignetting is present of course but it actually looks fairly natural because the eye just expects that when looking at a field of view like this.
So, this has been discontinued in Pentax mount by Sigma, so if you find one, don't hesitate or you mightn't get another chance. I gave it a 9 for value only because of the new price premium on them. For $700 as they were new before the discontuation, it was a 10 for value, but for almost $800, still good but pretty expensive.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: September, 2009 Location: Southern California Posts: 3,236
6 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 24, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $650.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharpness, build quality | | Cons: | Sigma rendering (but not as prominent as usual) | |
It looks like Sigma has recently discontinued this lens in Pentax mount. If they don't offer a replacement, that's horrible news. I'm not a Sigma fan, but this one impresses. It exhibits some of the typical Sigma image rendering (which is a negative to me), but it's only about half as noticeable as other Sigma lenses I've used.
Perhaps this lens isn't a "real" 10, but within context, given its constraints (zoom, widest Ultra Wide Angle available, APS-C design, K-mount, relatively slow aperture) it's amazing - definitely a 10. It's surprisingly sharp. On mine, the infinity focus mark is exactly spot-on. For most shots you simply turn of the AF, set the focus to infinity, set the aperture to around f/6.3, and zoom to somewhere between 10 and 16mm. You'll get tremendous DOF (from about 3' to infinity) and a sharp image throughout most or all of the frame. Setting the focus to even slightly less than infinity quickly compromises the sharpness of anything more than a few feet away. Usually AF will do this to you. So if you go outside of these parameters, you may not be as happy with the results. Most of the time you set a fixed focus and aperture, then concentrate on just zoom and composition.
At 10mm it puts the Sigma and Tamron 10-20/24s to shame. It's not a fast lens, and images from the DA15 are a little nicer. But when you can go to 10 or 8mm wide it's a whole different ballgame.
You could do better if you had a Nikon FX camera with a 14-24mm lens. But that's an ~$4000+ proposition. Adding this to your existing Pentax DSLR yields excellent results for a modest investment.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: September, 2013 Posts: 306 | | Review Date: September 22, 2013 | Not Recommended | Price: $650.00
| Rating: 4 |
| Pros: | 8-16 | | Cons: | Sharpness,reflections,no filters,af not good and noisy | |
This lens sucks. Af is not good and makes so much load click click noise when use, typical for sigma wide angle. Hsm kiss my ass! Corner sharpness is soo poor. Only f5.6-f11 are sharpenough to use, 16mm is near tamron 17-50 sharpness but looses litle. Sharpness reduces when going down from 16mm. All lights and sun makes rflections to pics. This is so shit lens.avoid this.
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